Here is an explanation of the titles of these books by my friend Linfan Zhu. 天方(Tian Fang). “The literal meaning of Tian Fang is somewhere that only has one direction. In the History of Ming Dynasty, it says, In the western direction of China, far away from Persia, there is a city called Tian Fang, or called Heaven, or called Mecca. In Chinese, Tian Fang (天方 or 天房) refers to Kaaba in Mecca. Thus, if we say Tian Fang, it deeply and meaningfully refers to Islam.
3`典礼(Dian Li). This is the hardest one in these names. Dian Li in current Chinese it exactly means what you said “ceremony”. But in the past, it has different meaning. As much as I can see, Dian Li should be two words and two different meanings. Dian means books and principles or laws; Li means rites and principles or orders. Confucious has a book named “The Book of Rites”, so I think it is a good way to use “rites”. For this reason, I think if we use Islamic Principles and Rites, that may be better, but not the best.”

Note: These texts written in Classical Chinese by scholars who were well versed in Confucian and Taoist philosophy as well as classical Islamic learning and may be thus too dense for most people to read, and are especially not meant for people who are beginners in this field or are not familiar with classical Chinese Philosophy or with Islam as these texts would be too dense for them.

Acknowledgement: I would like to especially thank brother Linfan Zhu for providing these texts.

I am an overseas Chinese speaker. I can’t really download two files which are the record of Muhammad s.a.w and Islamic principles and rites. I’m sorry have to trouble you, could you check the link or do you have other links? Other than these, they are ok. Thank you for the materials it’s helpful for our community here, Allah bless.

About the Islam in China Project

Islam in China is a web resource on all about Chinese Muslims, Islam in China and the intersection between these two. The aim of our project is to explore the culture, history and traditions of Chinese Muslims as well as the interaction of the Chinese Civilization withe the Muslim world and the cultural exchanges between the two civilizations.